{"id":3179,"date":"2016-05-17T06:57:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T06:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/?p=3179"},"modified":"2016-05-17T07:02:33","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T07:02:33","slug":"historic-genetic-picture-of-arabian-camel-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/2016\/05\/historic-genetic-picture-of-arabian-camel-revealed.html","title":{"rendered":"Historic genetic \u2018picture\u2019 of Arabian camel revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Camels<\/a>

{credit}PhotoDisc\/Getty Images{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n

An analysis of the ancient and modern DNA of the single-humped \u2018Arabian\u2019 camel or dromedary reveals how human societies have influenced\u00a0the animal\u2019s genetic diversity.<\/p>\n

Long-distance and back-and-forth movements in ancient camel caravan routes are one way this has happened.<\/p>\n

The camels have long been a source of food and transport for desert communities, and a vital resource in trade and agriculture in hot, arid regions. That’s why the scientists responsible for this study believe that in the context of climate change and advancing desert landscapes, scrutinizing dromedary\u2019s biology, reproduction and adaptation to hostile terrain has acquired\u00a0a new level of importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dromedary has out-performed all other domesticated mammals, including the donkey, in arid environments and continues to provide essential commodities to millions of people living in marginal agro-ecological areas,\u201d says<\/a>\u00a0lead author Faisal Almathen from the Department of Veterinary Health and Animal Husbandry at King Faisal University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is very little defined population structure in modern dromedaries. We believe this is a consequence of cross-continental back and forth movements along historic trading routes,” he adds. “Our results point to extensive gene flow which affects all regions except East Africa where dromedary populations have remained relatively isolated.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this\u00a0study, the\u00a0researchers collected and analysed genetic information from a sample of 1,083 living dromedaries from 21 countries across the world. The team also examined ancient DNA sequences from bone samples from early-domesticated dromedaries from 400-1870 AD and wild ones from 5,000-1,000 BC.<\/p>\n

The international team of scientists was led by geneticists from The University of Nottingham, the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia. The research<\/a>\u00a0itself is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analysis of the ancient and modern DNA of the single-humped \u2018Arabian\u2019 camel or dromedary reveals how human societies have influenced\u00a0the animal\u2019s genetic diversity.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121471,121469,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-121471","category-ecology-and-evolution","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/houseofwisdom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}